Exploration Destination was created out of a dream for a brighter future for the residents of Kay County. Although we have only lived in Kay County for 3 years we feel like this is our home. We felt as though there was one big thing that was missing from our new community and began to pray to find ways to add to our already great home! As we began to look for ways to add to the great community we are a part of, we realized that there was very little in the way of activities and locations for young children. We have five children, so we decided that we should focus on things that would make it better for them. Partially, I am sure, because our children are that age, we wanted to have things for them to do. It becomes not only costly to drive to Stillwater regularly, or even OKC, or Wichita, but too time consuming for us and five children to travel to a place for them to be entertained and educated. The thought came to us, why there was not a museum, zoo, or another facility around here. We began doing research on how to start them. We prayed, and felt inspired to look into a museum for children. Upon doing so, we found that most people told us that a museum that is built quickly takes 5-10 years to start. Longer ones take 20 years, generally in smaller communities. We were discouraged at that. But we had prayed and we were inspired and knew we must follow that inspiration.

We had enrolled in a class at Pioneer Tech in Ponca City as a fun way to expand our knowledge on business opportunities and to get a weekly date night. During the class we discussed different business opportunities and some of our ideas of creating growth and education within our community. We discussed with them the idea we had, and we had great feedback that this is what our community wanted and needed. This confirmed what we had been noticing, that to build one usually takes a minimum of 5-10 years in larger communities and generally never happens in smaller ones.

We had still felt inspired to make this museum happen in Ponca City so we continued forward. We have spent the past year and a half of our lives with me working at Blackwell Dentistry and then going to the museum in the evenings to make this happen.

I hope everyone knows that these museums are not for profit centers. Call any one of them in Oklahoma if you doubt this, and ask them how much profit they make in a year. They will respond that they don't make profit, but are only open due to generous contributors to make these locations survive. As of yet, we are the only contributors to this museum. I know it will not always be that way, but right now that is how it is. We are not in this for profit. We are doing this due to inspiration to do so. We hope that we can cover our operating costs through memberships. We have no aspiration to earn income from this.

We are a 12000 square foot museum, which is over twice the size of the Wondertorium, which is a place we love to visit. We will not stop going there just because our children will be members of Exploration Destination, our museum. We love and support other museums. We are trying to give Kay county and the surrounding areas something great for children.

We hope someday for this museum to be ran by a large organization like the ones ran in OKC. With your help and support we truly believe it will be! Check out our page on how to become involved here: